Section:GDN 1N PaGe:8 Edition Date:190906 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 5/9/2019 20:55 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
- The Guardian Friday 6 September 2019
(^8) National
Politics
▲ The Johnson family, from left: Boris, Leo, Rachel, Charlotte, Stanley and Jo,
with their nanny, Mary Kidd, standing at the back PHOTOGRAPH: FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH
The Johnsons
Upper-class family divided by
‘unresolvable’ Brexit tension
Ben Quinn
T
aken in the 1970s and
ostensibly depicting
a harmonious
upper-class British
family replete with
bellbottoms and
short trousers, it is a picture that
has lodged itself in modern British
political history.
While the family nanny, Mary
Kidd, stands unobtrusively behind,
from left to right it features Boris
Johnson at the age of 10, his seven-
year-old brother Leo , their nine-
year-old sister Rachel and parents,
Charlotte and Stanley.
But while a certain wilfulness was
apparent even then in the pose of
the older Johnson boy – who would
pronounce his ambition to be “world
king” – few might have guessed that
Jo, the smiling blond -bobbed little
brother prancing on the right, wouldemerge as the clan’s standard bearer
for one-nation conservatism and the
case for remaining in Europe.
More than that, however,
the citing by Jo yesterday of the
“unresolvable tension” between
family loyalty and national interest
that lay behind his decision to quit
as an MP refl ects the extent to which
the turmoil of Brexit has divided not
just the UK but the family itself.
The fi gure of Stanley looms large
in any narrative of the Johnson tribe,
albeit as one who biographers record
was largely absent for much of his
children’s early upbringing.
While in the US to study , he was
not at his wife’s side as she gave
birth in New York in June 1964 to
Alexander Boris de Pfeff el Johnson,
the son with whom he has shared
a characteristic blend of barely
concealed ambition and self-
deprecating wit.
By the middle of the 70s, after
landing a job at the European
commission, he was to becomeostensibly the sole parent as bouts of
depression led to repeated hospital
stays for his fi rst wife, Charlotte.
These days, the 79-year-old
remains a visible and vocal
supporter of his eldest son , even
if the former MEP’s support for
remain during the 2016 referendum
causes some to question the depth
of his commitment to leaving the
European Union.
By contrast his daughter, Rachel,
has continued to fi ercely oppose
Brexit. A journalist whose CV
includes stints at the Financial
Times and editor of the Lady, the
sometime Liberal Democrat ran as a
lead candidate for Change UK during
this year’s European parliamentary
elections – despite later describing
herself as a “rat that jumped on to a
sinking ship”.
As the spotlight fell on the family
after Jo ’s resignation yesterday
though, Rachel was quick to close
ranks on any suggestion of familial
strife, tweeting : “I said last night at acharity do that the family avoids the
topic of Brexit especially at meals
as we don’t want to gang up on the
PM!”
Of the other siblings, Leo
Johnson’s political pronouncements
have been at a remove, having built
a career in the City and as a co-host
of a Radio 4 series that explores how
new technology and the latest ideas
could transform the way society
functions.
Nevertheless, his retweeting of
pro-remain accounts have been
noted by Johnson Kremlinologists,
not least a recent one criticising
the role of the prime minister’s
chief of staff , Dominic Cummings,
and another lambasting “holierthan thou so-called upholders of
democracy” for repeating a mantra
about the need to deliver Brexit.
For the second time in less than
a year, meanwhile, the departure
from government of Jo Johnson has
narrowed scrutiny of the family’s
Brexit division on to the relationship
between him and his louder, older
brother.
A former investment banker
and journalist who is married to
Amelia Gentleman, a reporter for
the Guardian, he was appointed
director of the No 10 policy unit by
David Cameron in 2008 and became
an MP in 2010 for what was the safe
Conservative seat of Orpington in
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